Illustration by Susanne Gold, Text by Silke Wolf

I am sitting in my glider and hovering over a colourful meadow of flowers, happily watching rabbits and deer grazing relaxed on the edge of the forest. All the vehicles glide almost silently across the sky today. Not in wild confusion, of course, but well-ordered over so-called guiding lines. In former times, these tarred lines were called roads. In one place or another, you can still see the remains of them.

Now most of the former roads are green and while flying, which of course happens autonomously, I can admire the beauties of nature in peace.

Slowly it gets dark. According to my on-board computer “Konrad”, I still need 4 hours until I reach my destination. I press a button. My armchair flattens out and I lie down to sleep a little longer, waiting for “Konrad” to wake me up punctually 5 minutes before reaching my destination.

The most positive development of the last decades is that a large part of humanity has understood that unlimited material growth on a limited planet is a real utopia.

We have introduced a new global economic system that focuses on the well-being of all people. Of course, there are still a few places where things are not yet working out so well. But we are on the right track. We have learned to use the almost infinite energy of the sun. We haven’t needed fossil fuels for a long time. The climate has recovered. In some places we can still see the effects of the climate catastrophe that threatened us at the time. Fortunately, we were able to avert the worst. Especially near the coast, there are places still scarred by the floods of more than 50 years ago, and some areas still suffer from the effects of extreme droughts or floods.

Today, the sea level has returned to its former height and the climate has also calmed down again.

There are significantly fewer storms, the air is cleaner than it has been for a long time. Nature is finding its balance again and again. We have enough drinking water available and every spring is freely accessible to everyone. Food has not been traded on the stock exchange for a long time. The plan is that everything that nature makes available to us humans should also benefit everyone, rich or poor. It will probably take a few more years until this is really implemented cleanly. We have learned from nature and developed many new technologies that allow us to live comfortably and at the same time protect nature. There have been a lot of creative minds in the last few decades. We build houses that generate so much energy that they can even feed energy into the general grid and eat a mostly vegetarian diet. All forms of undignified caging of farm animals no longer take place, and we can also produce our medicines without animal testing. The little plastic we use today is biodegradable and no longer requires crude oil for production. A lot has changed. We have schools that our children love to go to. They are colourful and full of exciting experiences. Every child learns to accept themselves as they are and can contribute their individual strengths. Children learn early on to take different perspectives and how important communication and relationships are. Above all, they learn to think for themselves. Back then, a hundred years ago, your grandparents had to learn a lot by heart and school was fun for very few of them. Today’s children can’t believe that when their elders talk about that time.

Most companies no longer work in a profit-oriented way, but with a sense of purpose. They serve only the people and not the people the companies.

The employees are supported in their personal development to best meet the needs of the customers. As a result, almost all people enjoy their work and everyone contributes to the common good in their own way. Within most companies, training on personal development, resilience, mindfulness, empathy, intuition and creativity is regularly provided.

There are fewer and fewer wars, hunger and hardship in the world.

Nevertheless, we still face challenges. The questions of our time are: How can we let all people in all regions share in the achievements of the last decades? And how can we support the regions that are still suffering from the effects of the climate catastrophe? And: How can all nations live together as a world population, preserve our national characteristics and still strengthen our holistic thinking? But, as we understand better and better that life also means the challenge to take the shaping of our world into our own hands, we dedicate ourselves to this with verve and energy.